Birmingham City: Alex McLeish hails set-piece specialist Seb Larsson for inspiring Blues to victory at Wigan

Dec 7 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Mail

Alex McLeish

ALEX McLeish hailed his set-piece specialist Seb Larsson for inspiring Blues to victory at Wigan.

The Sweden international kick-started his side’s remarkable second-half fight-back with a free kick that evaded everyone from all of 30 yards.

Then, having seen Christian Benitez edge Blues in front, Larsson made it 3-1 by exquisitely curling home another set-piece beyond the grasp of substitute Wigan keeper Mike Pollitt and into the top left-hand corner.

Now, having seen Larsson tuck away several free kicks during Blues’ last season in the Premier League, McLeish was glad to see the former Arsenal man back to his lethal best.

“Great to see Seb back to his best with his delivery,” McLeish said. “He overcooked one in the first half. We spoke at half time about the free kicks being a bit narrower with the delivery, to try to eliminate (Paul) Scharner and (Titus) Bramble at the back and that is Seb at his best. Two seasons ago he must have scored four or five for us and against quality goalkeepers like (Liverpool’s Pepe) Reina, unsaveable.

“The first one was the dangerous type, anyone gets a touch on it then it’s a goal, even if they don’t get a touch the speed of the delivery confuses the goalkeeper.”

Larsson is just one member of McLeish’s trustworthy squad. The Blues boss added: “I’ve got players I can trust and that makes a huge different to a manager because when you’re firefighting that’s when you worry about certain things on the pitch.

“But when you’ve got players you can trust then what a difference it makes. It’s been a steady build up over two seasons. We’re getting towards looking like a pretty good team.”